Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 23:57
Mexico City.- The Chamber of Deputies approved a reform that strengthens military control of Mexican airspace.
With waiver of paperwork, the plenary endorsed a package of complementary modifications to the Mexican Airspace Protection Law published last March, which gives the Sedena the power to monitor and protect Mexican airspace.
The reform that modifies the Federal Public Administration Law, the Organic Law of the Mexican Army and Air Force, the Airports Law and the Civil Aviation Law was endorsed with 264 votes in favor, 213 against and two abstentions.
The text indicates that the Sedena is responsible for safeguarding the sovereignty and defense of airspace and guaranteeing lawful air operations in national territory, tasks that it must carry out in coordination with the Secretary of the Navy (Semar) and in concurrence with the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT).
Authorizes Sedena and Semar to participate in air search and rescue operations, establish surveillance zones, and states that the National Defense may conduct intelligence operations, control operations in previously established surveillance zones, and carry out interception, search, and rescue to protect people’s lives.
The latter, he points out, will be carried out without prejudice to the powers that correspond to other authorities.
The reform indicates that the National Center for Surveillance and Protection of the Air Space, whose creation is considered in the reform of last May, will be an integral body of the high command of the Sedena.
In addition, it obliges the Mexican Meteorological Service to provide information to Army and Air Force agencies, as well as to prepare the studies that are required.
The project also increases the grounds for the revocation of permits, considering, for example, cases in which the permit holders fail to inform the aeronautical authority when an aerodrome is used without the consent of the permit holder.
Likewise, it adds to the sanctions applicable to the concessionaires and permit holders of the public air transport service and pilots, fines for carrying out maneuvers that motivate the activation of the air alert and specifies that by itself or at the request of the Sedena, the SICT may suspend or cancel certificates. of air navigation.
It also establishes the obligation of the authorities that operate airports to inform the Sedena of landings of foreign aircraft of private non-commercial service that take place in Mexican international airports.
During the discussion of the reform, PRD member Marcelino Castañera warned that the initiative goes beyond militarization, because it makes the Army one of the authorities that will monitor and protect the airspace, together with the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) that will now be dependent on the policies and actions dictated by the Armed Forces.
He said that reforms like these are gradually leading Mexico to a military government, totally out of all democratic logic and the strengthening of human rights.
“We see this government regressing from a democratic, republican and citizen state to a military regime in less than six years, a prize against those who voted for you, who swore not to betray and undoubtedly deceived and betray today,” he said.
Castañeda assured that with this reform, the obtaining of Category 1 in aviation safety is going backwards.
PAN member Iván Arturo Rodríguez pointed out that the modifications violate the Constitution, which reserves the military function for national security.
“The proposed reforms are questionable regarding the constitutional mandate, since faculties are granted to the Sedena that must correspond to dependencies of the civil order, which must be exceptional circumstances, they are being generalized in an unjustified way,” he said.
Rodríguez warned about the risk that the project will force Federal Public Administration units to duplicate functions, by not delimiting the airspace that will be safeguarded by the Secretary of National Defense.
Morenista Miguel Carrillo pointed out that it is necessary to guarantee that the security and safeguarding of airspace is at the forefront in accordance with national and international guidelines.
In this sense, he stated that it is undeniable that the Armed Forces are among the instances that have the most technology and equipment.
“I consider it fundamental or prevailing that institutions such as the Mexican Army or the Mexican Air Force have the normative, regulatory and legal powers to be said institutions, together and with absolute coordination with the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, the Agency Federal Civil Aviation and other corresponding agencies, to carry out the activities of monitoring, detection and prevention of illegal clandestine flights that organized crime groups currently carry out over Mexican airspace,” he said.
